Outlook 2020: Meet the woman behind Fallin's wins

Denise Northrup would probably laugh at being described as someone who worked “quietly behind the scenes.”

Northrup may not have been well known to the public when she ran campaigns, hired staff and organized the schedule for Mary Fallin as a candidate and office holder. But no one would likely ever accuse Northrup of working quietly.

What she did was work efficiently and effectively.

Northrup, 48, ran six winning campaigns for Fallin for lieutenant governor, Congress and governor, with nary a hiccup. She ran Fallin’s district office when Fallin served in the U.S. House — a challenging job that involves handling the problems residents have with federal agencies.

And she became the first female chief of staff for an Oklahoma governor when Fallin took office in January 2011.

During Fallin’s second term, Northrup moved over to the Office of Management and Enterprise Services and eventually became director before the Stitt administration took over.

Behind the scenes, during Fallin’s time as governor, Northrup had two victories “that fundamentally changed the way I viewed my work for the state.”

The first was on a plan to improve the lives of foster children. The work provided her an in-depth look at the many challenges in the state, including “generational poverty, addiction, domestic violence and bureaucratic red tape.” The plan that emerged, she said, was “a monumental shift in how we treat Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens.”

The second issue was Pay for Success Contract for Women in Recovery, an alternative for women who might otherwise be incarcerated. Three years after the plan had been approved, Northrup took the lead in getting it funded and put into action. The program has served over 600 women and impacted the lives of over 1,200 children, with only 3% to 4% of the women winding up in prison later.

She said, “The reason that this is so important is that, for the first time instead of government paying for something it ‘hopes’ works, the state is only obligated to pay when the program works. And it does.”

Chris Casteel

Chris Casteel began working for The Oklahoman's Norman bureau in 1982 while a student at the University of Oklahoma. Casteel covered the police beat, federal courts and the state Legislature in Oklahoma City. From 1990 through 2016, he was the...
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